


The Yanks Are Coming to Hogwarts

by supermegafoxyawesomehotfredweasley



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Eventual Smut, F/M, Gryffindor, Hogwarts, Hufflepuff, I promise, It gets fixed, M/M, Multi, Pranks, Quidditch, Ravenclaw, Slytherin, Starts when the Weasley Twins start hogwarts, This is gonna take place over seven years fyi, Young Love, but not for a while, but only for a sec, characters and such i mean, discovering being a wizard, growing up muggle, house hate, its first year calm down, smut wont happen til like fifth or sixth year, so things will be added, twitches - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-11-15
Updated: 2015-11-15
Packaged: 2018-05-01 20:13:19
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 18,185
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5219276
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/supermegafoxyawesomehotfredweasley/pseuds/supermegafoxyawesomehotfredweasley
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Crystella Morgan and Roxie Jones lost their parents to death eaters at the age of three, after their parents tried to hide in America. When their godmother finally found them at age 11, everything changed. No longer were they two poor kids in foster care, they were witches, and along with that comes some pretty cool stuff.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

Twitches age three, Friday March Thirteenth 

To the average muggle, London was a lovely city. It wasn't the countryside, but not a bad place to own a flat. The wizard world on the other hand was in full crisis; The Dark Lord was terrorizing anyone who stood in his way of taking full control of the wizarding world. Members of Dumbledore's Order of the Phoenix were forced into hiding with their families after the Longbottoms were tortured for information. The Jones and Morgans were two such families. Kyra Morgan and Alexis Jones were so influential in the group that Albus and Minerva urged them to flee the country. The two intelligent women told their muggle husbands that there were more job opportunities across the pond and the families quickly stole to America. All the while, their muggle husbands remained blissfully unaware of the wizarding world and the dangers it held for their families. 

Three years after they fled, their new country’s illusion of safety was shattered. Thankfully, their lovely three-year-old daughters were at Roxanne’s grandmother’s house when two of Voldemort’s Death Eaters arrived in their home. The four friends were enjoying their dinner, happily ignorant of the danger approaching. Bellatrix Lestrange and her best friend and partner in crime, Jacinda Barnett, arrived at the peaceful home in Detroit, Michigan. With a flick of their wrists, they burst down the door and strode into the dining area. Before either Kyra or Alexis could think to draw their wands, Jacinda and Bellatrix had killed their husbands without a second thought. Kyra and Alexis, both motivated by the murder of their loves, swallowed their pain and began duelling the two, quickly destroying everything in sight. Kyra dueled Bellatrix, both women dodging and throwing complex spells at the other, fighting to gain the upper hand. Alexis dueled Jacinda in the smoldering heap of what used to be the living room. Her guard slipped slightly as she narrowly avoided falling over a chunk of the china cupboard. 

"Crucio!" Jacinda screeched, rendering Alexis helpless, writhing in pain on the floor. Kyra heard her best friend’s cries and began shooting spells faster and harder to reach her. Little did Jacinda know, Alexis had a special form of magic that let her put an extra shield around her mind without the use of a wand. As Alexis felt her shields activate, she quickly regained her composure. Kyra shot a spell at Bellatrix temporarily paralyzing her.

“Alexis!” she called, rushing to help, but Alexis was already back on her feet, charging Jacinda. The crash and clatter of shattering glass rang out as they both fell to the ground outside. Kyra was sure they were both done for, but to her astonishment Jacinda and Alexis rushed to their feet. With a raging, angry fire in her eyes and a fierce, almost animalistic growl, Alexis ran at the other witch with her hands outstretched, as if to grab Jacinda by the throat. As Alexis ran, Kyra saw something silver glint in Jacinda’s hand. She tried to call out, to warn Alexis, but it was too late. In one angry motion, a dagger was thrust into her best friend’s heart. 

The world seemed to move in slow motion as Kyra watched Alexis drop to the ground and let out a few ragged breaths, her eyes glazing over and her body going deathly still. Jacinda let out a sinister laugh as Kyra screamed in pain. Twenty years of friendship, ended by this horrible woman with a knife. She glared down at Jacinda with a hellish fire burning like never before in her eyes. If looks could kill, this story might have ended differently.

“That’s my best friend you bitch!!” Kyra yelled before jumping through the window and throwing curses at the other witch, before finishing her off with the killing curse. Jacinda dropped dead only a few feet away from Alexis’s body. Another blood curdling cry echoed through the night as Bellatrix, who had broken out of Kyra’s spell, cried out for her friend. Just as soon as Kyra spun around to face Bellatrix, but she wasn’t quick enough. 

“Sectum Sempra!” Bellatrix wailed. Kyra fell to the ground in pain as cuts began to form all over her body. Bellatrix rushed to Jacinda’s, side pulling her close before apparating out with her body. It was over.

When the muggles discovered the family the next morning, they figured the families were caught up in gang violence, and there was no investigation. After learning that her beloved son and his wife had been killed, the pain was too much for Roxanne’s grandmother; she passed away in her sleep from the devastation. As she was last person in the United States that had any connection to the two toddlers, the government placed them under foster care.  
Across the Atlantic Ocean, Molly Weasley began to worry. At Hogwarts, she, Alexis, and Kyra had been best friends. It’s where they had first bonded with other future members of the Order, including the Potters and Longbottoms. After her best friends had moved to America - which was ridiculous in her mind (she believed they would have been much safer surrounded by their friends) - both women wrote Molly letters so that she knew of their well being. When she received no letter one week and no letter the next week explaining the absence of the first, she contacted Minerva Mcgonagall. 

Mcgonagall went to where the children were being held as soon as she found out what had happened. She fought the muggle authorities to try and take them back to London, but since there was no ridiculous muggle paperwork stating that the girls were her goddaughters she would have to wait a year at least for them to process an adoption. Absolutely absurd, Mcgonagall thought, perhaps if I turned one of them into a pocket watch they may do their job in a more timely manner. Ridiculous.  
So the two children, Roxanne Jones and Crystella Morgan, were moved around the system a few times before they finally ended up at the same horrible foster home in Nevada. They lived there for seven terrible years before running away to California when they decided they couldn’t take the neglect and abuse anymore. While they both had emotional scars, Roxanne had enough physical ones to last them both a lifetime. After about a year of living on the streets, Mcgonagall caught wind of the two’s whereabouts and set out to find them. It was raining when she found them huddled together in a strange blue tube in a park just outside of Orange County, California. As she approached them, the slightly taller one moved to stand in front of the other and narrowed her bright electric blue eyes. Mcgonagall saw a slight flash of silver as the girl pulled a small knife out and pointed it at her. Mcgonagall held her hands up to show she meant no harm and explained to the two about her being her godmother. The girl in front doubted her story and held the other girl closer to her, but the smaller of the two peaked her head out behind the taller one as she vaguely recognized the story. After some convincing, both girls walked out in the rain with Mcgonagall, and she took them home with her. Once there, she fed, clothed, and bathed the two children. They went to bed early after the long day’s events. The next morning, Mcgonagall explained to them what really happened to their parents, about them both being witches, and about Hogwarts. The smaller of the two, who Mcgonagall found out was Crystella, was extremely excited and couldn’t wait to go, but Roxanne had her doubts. After everything they’d been through, she had doubts this deal could really be as sweet as it sounded.


	2. The Wizarding World: Crystella

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The girls are welcomed into the wizarding world by their awesome godmother.

The tall, aging, yet beautiful woman who had gone from stranger to godmother in a matter of minutes is what I’ve been dreaming about my whole life: someone to tell me being able to move objects without touching them was normal, someone to tell us we were special, not just in general but to them, someone to save us. Of course, Roxie is a bit worried, but she’s always worrying about me. We both had to grow up fast without parents and being shuffled around from one miserable place to the next. When I wake up, I worry it all had been a dream, but when I realize I hadn't been awoken by screaming for a “stupid girl to get up and make breakfast,” I know it had been real. I walk down the stairs of the small house and find Ms. Mcgonagall in the kitchen. I watch quietly from the doorway as the elegant witch waves her wand and food cooks itself and the sponge washes dishes without the assistance of a hand. She turns around and, when she sees me, smiles softly and sets a plate full of pancakes on the table and gesture for me to sit down. 

She sits across from me and states, “We have a very busy day planned today. Very exciting as well of course. It will be your first real day in the world you were born to be a part of.”

“Really?! Oh I’m so excited what will we be doing Ms.-... Ms.-...” I realize that I really didn't know what to call her. She is my godmother so it would be strange to call her by her first name. 

She smiles warmly as she contemplates, and eventually says, “You can call me Aunt Minny while we are here, but at school you must remember to call Professor Mcgonagall. Can you do that for me, Crystella?”

“Absolutely!”

Aunt Minny smiles at me lovingly, and Roxie walks in the room. She sits down at the table and also receives a plate of food.

“I have to run and pack my school things, girls. I’ll be right back and then we’ll begin our day.” Aunt Minny walks out of the room. I then quickly and excitedly tell Roxie what we are supposed to call Aunt Minny now, and in school. She seems unenthused, but I know it isn't because she isn't happy to have someone there for us. It’s just because she’s never been a morning person. 

“I think I can manage that, th-” She yawns, “thanks Crisy.”

We finish our breakfast mostly in silence except for the music coming from Aunt Minny’s room down the hall. When she comes back she asks us to take her arms. “We will be shopping for your school things today, as you leave tomorrow morning at 11 o’clock for Hogwarts.”

That is all the warning I have before the only thing I can hear is the sound of a jet plane. I feel like I am being pulled in opposite directions then forced back together and whipped around, then suddenly we’re back on our feet as if nothing happened. Of course it had, because we’re now in a long alley full of shops with signs advertising so many different things, people wandering around in cloaks like the one Aunt Minny is wearing, and their feet make soft noises as they hit the cobblestone walkway.  
“Woah,” I gasp, “What just happened?”

“Oh well I suppose I should have warned you girls,” Aunt Minny says, nonchalantly, “We just apparated from one location to another. It’s a bit like teleportation, you see, but of course teleportation is fictitious. Apparition is very real, and can leave you with a bit of a headrush. Are you feeling alright?”

I nod and look over to Roxie with excitement hoping she’d finally realise that good things could happen to us. To anyone else she would look very on guard and wary, and naturally she is, especially when surrounded by hundreds of people she doesn't know, but I can tell she’s excited and nearly there. Nearly ready to believe.   
The first stop is a large white building. Carved into the marble at the front is the word “Gringotts” in all capital letters. We walk in and I can’t believe my eyes. Everything is carved out of solid, cold, beautiful, sparkling marble. I can’t help but stop and stare.

“Now ladies,” Aunt Minny starts, pulling me out of my dazed state, “before your mothers were taken from us, they put money in this special wizard bank for use on your education should anything happen to them. Fortunately you both had very wise mothers.” It makes me sad, wishing that it could be our mothers showing us around, but I had to be thankful for what I had. After all Roxie and I aren’t related but we had grown up sisters because the awful foster system somehow managed to keep us together. Aunt Minny goes on to tell us about the goblins that are in charge of the bank (goblins? cool) and how they are very smart (in fact they’re so smart no one has ever successfully robbed Gringotts), but they aren't very kind. I believe the last part when a crotchety old goblin helps us at the counter. He calls for someone named Griphook and scowls at us until he comes. When he does, we go down to each of our vaults with the young looking goblin to get money for school supplies.

“Wow,” is all I can manage to say as we step inside the stone walls of what can only be my bank account. I can’t believe what I’m seeing: gold, gold, mountains of gold. I really must be dreaming. I’m only eleven and I must be the richest girl in the world. This view kicks the bank entrance’s butt! After letting me touch some of my mountains of money, Aunt Minny takes what I need, we repeat the process in Roxie’s vault, and we get on our way.

Our second stop is Florish and Blotts, a bookstore where Aunt Minny politely greets the man behind the counter. She talks idly with him for a moment before saying she has two first years with her who need books for school. He helps us find our materials and we continue our errands. Next is another shop with many strange items. We get cauldrons and potion ingredients and get out. Fourth, we go to Madame Malkin’s for our school robes, and we even get owls. I get a barn owl and name her Artemis, and Roxie gets an eagle owl named Apollo. Finally it is time to get our wands. 

We walk up to a small shop called Ollivander's. Inside it is crowded with shelves upon shelves of long, thin, rectangular boxes. A small old man comes out from somewhere behind the shelves and gives us a smile, “Ah,” He says, “First years.” 

“Yes, sir.” Roxie replies quietly. 

“Well dear what’s your name? It is much easier for an old man to remember what he sold to whom when he has a name.” Ollivander says as he starts to shuffle about the shop. 

“I’m sorry?” Roxie asks.

“Roxie, just tell him.” I say, I just want to get our wands already. 

“Well, Roxie, is it?” He waits for her to shake her head yes.

“Roxanne actually sir,” she says, trying to be polite.

“I remember every wand I have ever sold,” he continues. “It makes it much easier to find the right one for you when I know what has worked in the past for your family. Unless you are muggle born?”

Aunt Minny jumps in just for a moment, “No they both had magical mothers.” After that she steps back out of the way.

“My name is Roxanne Jones.” I can see Roxie’s walls coming down, I know as soon as she has her wand she will be ready to accept that we are a part of this world. 

“Ah, yes, I do remember you mother, strong witch, no doubt there, and her father was a great wizard as well, yes. Let’s start with something similar to his.” He pulls a box from a shelf before setting it on the counter then handing her the wand. “Give it a swish,” he says. She waves it but it seems as though the wand had not taken a liking to her, for just when she does a shelf behind Ollivander collapses. “Well,” he said, “Now that certainly isn’t it. Try this instead.”

This time when Roxie waves the wand in her hand the shelf she had previously destroyed puts itself back up, and even dusts itself clean. “Ah yes, I do love when things like that work out. Looks like you have a 12 and 3/4 inch larch wood dragon core wand. Supple, good for a first year, won't be too likely to break.”

There it is, I think to myself, a smile. Roxie is excited, she’s letting herself be excited and not guarded, it’s wonderful to see. She hands Ollivander money for the wand and goes to stand by Aunt Minny, who pats her on the back. Suddenly it’s my turn, and I walk up to the counter. 

“And your name is?”

“Crystella Morgan.”

“Ah, another young lady whose power comes from a talented mother. I know exactly what to give you, I’ll be right back,” He walks around a rather precarious looking pile and comes back with a dusty box in his hands, just like the box Roxie’s wand had been in. He hands it to me looking expectantly as I wave it. When I do, a dead flower to the right comes back to life. “Oh, good yes just perfect, I knew it. An 11 inch sycamore with a unicorn core, yours is only slightly springy so it won't bend as much as Miss Jones’ will, but yours certainly isn’t a bad wand either. Both exceptional wands, I expect exceptional things. Have a good day.” 

“Thank you, and you too sir!” I say excitedly, rushing up to Aunt Minny and Roxie to show them my new wand. Roxie shows me hers. Aunt Minny kneels down slightly to hug us. She sighs sadly before giving us small smiles, “Your mothers would be so proud. I remember when they were in my class, they would talk about having daughters and them being best friends, just as they were. Seeing you two get your wands and having the first person you show be each other? They would have been thrilled and so proud.” 

Roxie and I both look up at her and utter small thank yous. As the three of us walk out of the cramped store a small bell chimes. We wander down Diagon Alley just looking at all the different shops and listening to all of the people. It is strange for Roxie and I to hear all these people speak. Growing up in America, we don’t have English accents and only heard them occasionally from someone visiting the country. However, because we are in London, everyone here has a crisp English accent, including Aunt Minny. All the different robes are also wonderful to look at, all incredibly fascinating. They are all different colors and made of various fabrics. We stop at Florean Fortescue’s Ice Cream Parlor, which is right across from Madame Malkin’s Robes For All Occasions, where we got our school robes. It’s the most delicious ice cream I have ever tasted. We pass other shops like the stationary shop and the magical instruments shop on our way back to the Leaky Cauldron, but there is one in particular that Roxie and I both want to go in: Quality Quidditch Supplies. There are a ton of kids our age inside the store, and we wonder what all the hullabaloo is about.   
Aunt Minny lets us go in and are we glad she does. Inside there are many different kinds of broom sticks and cleaners that claim they would make your broom faster or turn sharper. Aunt Minny explains to us what Quidditch is, saying that it’s a wizarding game played on flying broomsticks. She explains how the goal of the game is to catch the golden snitch, but that job falls on only one player: the Seeker. In the meantime other players, called chasers, try and score points by throwing another ball called the quaffle through one of the other teams three hoops. Each time a chaser gets a quaffle through one of the hoops, they earn ten points for their team. The Keeper is like the goalie, making sure that the other team’s chasers fail to earn any points. While that is happening two Beaters are flying around making sure that the Seeker, or anyone else on their team, doesn’t get hit by a bludger, which is a flying ball that goes around hitting people off their brooms. All this is happening while the Seeker searches for and tries to catch the snitch, which is very fast. Once they do their team earns 150 points and the games is over. It sounds absolutely amazing. She also says that Hogwarts has teams, one for each house! She said that first years nearly never make their house teams, but it was possible. 

“If you like, since you both seem so interested in quidditch, I could get you each a broomstick as an early birthday gift. But, anything else you need for it, cleaning supplies and the like you will need to get yourselves. How does that sound?” Aunt Minny asks.

“Perfect, thank you!” Roxie and I say at the same time, bringing a smile to Aunt Minny’s face. We each pick out our brooms and once they are paid for, we leave. Once we get back to the Leaky Cauldron, we sit at a table and get a cup of tea. 

“Alright girls, I have to leave for Hogwarts tonight, because I am a teacher I need to arrive earlier than students. I have arranged for you two to stay the night here and be transported to Kings Cross Station in the morning.” She pulls two train tickets from her bag and hands one to each of us. “These are your tickets for the Hogwarts Express.” Without even looking at them Roxie and I both put them somewhere safe; for her that meant in her pocket, for me that meant in my brand new copy of Quidditch Throughout The Ages, which hadn't left my sight since we left the store. “Don't lose those them and stick to them. It’s very important, the train leaves at exactly 11 o’clock, so do not be late. Everything for tonight has been paid for already. I am sorry that I have to go, but Professor Dumbledore expects me very soon. Come here.”  
She gets up and shows us to our room, then she gives us each a hug, “You are both very wonderful girls, I can already tell. You will both do great at Hogwarts. I will see you tomorrow evening. Have a good night girls.”

Then she’s gone, apparated to the school that would, as of tomorrow night, be home. After she’s gone, I giggle. 

“What?” Roxie asks.

“Well,” I start, “she says she thinks we’ll do so well, but she has no idea the trouble we’ll get into either. Think about it. Remember all the trouble we got into at our old school for pranking the other children and teachers. Not to mention the trouble at home when we got payback on our evil foster parents. I’m just saying, think about how much more fun pranking will be with magic.” 

“Yes!” Roxie laughs, throwing her arms in the air in excitement. “But lets try not to get ourselves expelled in the first week this time, alright? I mean, I think we’re gonna like this school better than the others.” Maybe she is right but that doesn't stop either of us from getting excited about all of the fun and trouble we will undoubtedly cause. We both end up falling asleep with smiles on our faces for the first time in a very, very long time. 

The next morning we both happily wake up early and put all our new things neatly in our trunks, each of which has our initials on the end. We put our owls in their cages, which Apollo does not appreciate. We manage to carry everything down the stairs, tucking our broomsticks under our arms with owls in one hand while the other pulls the trunks behind us. A tall thin man with an abnormally curved nose apparates us to King’s Cross Station (thankfully this time neither of us even got sick to our stomachs, which we were both thankful for), but after that we are left on our own. Unsure of where to go we both pull out the tickets Aunt Minny had given us the day before, only to look up from them more confused than before. 

Looking at Roxie with pure and utter confusion on my face I state, “I think my ticket was printed wrong, it says the train leaves from-”

“Platform 9 and 3/4.” We finish my sentence together. 

“There's no way-,” Roxie starts.

“-it can't leave from-,” I continue.

“-Platform 9 and 3/4, there’s-” she adds on.

“-no such thing, right?” I finish. 

We are so involved in our own conversation about where we are supposed to be going that we pay no mind when hear two boys talking. 

“George, are you thinking what I’m thinking?”

“Fred, I believe I am.”

Just as they finish talking and while we’re still questioning where we’re supposed to be, a plump woman with fiery red hair passes by saying, “Hurry, hurry, we don't want you to be late. Come on platform 9 and 3/4 is this way, Fred and George are you putting this to memory? Bill and Percy already know where to go. ... Fred? George?” 

She turns around looking for people when she realises that while she was talking to four people, she only had two with her. She looks in our direction sternly. Although we didn’t know her, we both feel as though we are in trouble and should hang our heads. Before we do, we each feel a person right behind us. 

“Boo,” two people say behind us. We both whip around to face identical twin boys with blindingly bright red hair and mischievous grins plastered on their faces. Out of natural instinct, Roxie punches the one who was behind her in the face, sending him to the ground as she takes a fighting stance.

“BOYS!” The woman scolds in a mix of anger and embarrassment, “Leave those poor girls alone.”

The one currently getting off the floor mumbles a sarcastic, “Poor girls, right.”

Their mother then turns to us, “I’m sorry dears, they can be a bit much sometimes, but I love them just the same.”

“Come on now mum, we all know-” the one twin facing me starts.

“-that you love us the most,” the finishes the one in front of Roxie as he cradles his face in his hand. 

“Oh stop, both of you. Alright dears are you first years too?” she asks us and we turn around to face her. We nod our heads yes, and she continues, “Alright then why don't you come with us to the platform, hm? It’s Fred and George's first year as well. Follow me. In the meantime, boys try and be polite. Introduce yourselves, that’s a good start.”

The twin who was previously behind me is now standing to my left and Roxie is on my right. On her right is the other twin, still rubbing his left cheek, while the other tries, and fails, not to laugh. The boy standing next to me gives me a smile and says, “Fred Weasley, and the poor bloke your friend just decked is my twin brother, George.”

“Twins huh? I wouldn’t have guessed,” I say jokingly. 

“Oh I like this one Georgie,” Fred laughs. 

“This one’s name happens to be Crystella,” I shoot back with a smirk. “And ounchey-mc-deck-his-face is called Roxie.”

George laughs and says, “That name makes so much sense.”

Roxie just smirks, but I can see a slight blush appearing on her cheeks. “Thanks.”

“You’re not from around here are you?” George asks.

“Nope, just got shipped here from ‘Merica!” Roxie says with a fake southern accent, making me laugh and the boys look confused but amazed.

“Lemme guess, the accents gave us away?” I say.

“Just a bit,” Fred replies smiling.

“Come on kids!” the twin’s mother calls out, ushering us towards a red brick column between Platforms 9 and 10. “Alright Bill and Percy you two go first.”

The other two boys who are here with the twin’s mother line up and going one at a time, they run straight at the column. But instead of crashing into it, they run right through and disappear. Roxie and I watch in amazement, both of our jaws almost dropping to the floor.

When the older two boys disappear the woman turns to me saying, “Alright Dear, first of all my name’s Molly. What’s your name hun?”

“Crystella.” I say shyly.

“Okay then, Crystella, why don't you and Fred go next, hm?” She gives me a smile and then starts to talk to Roxie and George. I don't hear much of their conversation though, because I am starting to get a little nervous. 

Fred taps my back, “Hey you okay? It’ll be fine. You saw Bill go through, even Prissy Percy can do it. I have no doubt you can too.”

“You don't even know me” I say quietly.

“Doesn’t matter. I can tell that you are truly wicked,” he says. When I give him a weird look from his usage of the word wicked, he quickly realizes what he said and shakes his head correcting himself. “In a good way! I forgot you’re American. Out here, wicked means good, great actually. Now come on, we’ll go together, on three okay? One. Two. Three!”

We both break into a run towards the column. As we ‘hit’ the wall, we keep running, and it opens out for us to see that we are both on Platform 9 ¾. A wide grin threatens to split my face in two, because this is all just too cool. Fred pokes my arm saying, “See I told you you could do it. I was right.”

“Wow, what a genius.” I joke and poke him right back.

“Glad we got that sorted, I was afraid I’d have to wait months for you to see my gentleness.” Fred laughs and fains relief.

“Right, okay so now what genius?” I ask. 

“Now we put our bags on the train and try to find a place to sit,” he says warmly.

“Not without Roxie though,” I say, slight apprehension of not having my best friend by me evident in my face and voice.

“Relax, you think I’d go on my first ride on Hogwarts Express without old Georgie? Never. We’ll wait right here for them, okay? But give em a minute. Mum just loves to talk.” He grins trying to make me less nervous and places an arm around my shoulder. He’s probably trying to relax me with the friendly action, but all it ends up doing is making my heart race. 

Well this really isn’t the time for that, there’s already too much going on without that, I think to myself but I don't move from under his arm either. I was not going to hear the end of this from Roxie. She always thought I thought too much with my heart and not enough with my head. Oh well.

Soon Roxie and George come barrelling through the wall, and following closely behind them is Mrs. Weasley. She hugs all of her boys and kisses each of them on the forehead while they mutter complaints about other students seeing. She then tells Roxie and I that it was wonderful meeting us and gives us hugs too. She gives us well wishes for the year ahead also. 

Roxie and I smile at each other after she leaves, and her older sons leave us to find their friends. Now it’s just Roxie, George, Fred, and myself. 

“Right then,” George says. “Shall we?”

We nod in agreement and make our way towards the train. One of the train workers helps us load all of our trunks and owls onto the train, then we make our way onto the train to attempt to find some seats.


	3. Hogwarts Express and The Sorting Hat: Roxie

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The gang gets sorted into their houses after getting to know each other on the Hogwarts Express.

After a bit of searching, we find an empty compartment and pile in. Fred and George sit next to each other on one side, and Crisy and I sit on the other. A few minutes later, we hear the whistle blow and the train starts moving. I sigh and lean back in the seat, watching out the window as the train pulls out of the station. Crisy and Fred have started a conversation but I’m not really paying attention. At least not until the topic changes to pranks.

“You’ll never believe some of the stuff we’ve pulled on our other brother,” Fred says.

“Oh really?” Crisy challenges, a mischievous smirk on her face. She glances at me from the corner of her eye. An unspoken statement relays between us: Bet we’ve done better.

“Really,” George says, entering into the conversation.

“Like what?” Crisy asks turning her attention to look at George. 

Fred and George launch into story after story of all the pranks they’ve pulled on their family members. Both Crisy and I laugh at their antics and add in a few ideas of what they should have done that would’ve made it even funnier than they already were.

“You know you two are pretty smart,” George comments.

“Not bad for two American girls?” I question, teasingly raising an eyebrow at him.

“Excuse me?” Crystella sasses. “Us being female has nothing to do with our pranking abilities, besides the fact that we were born in London, just so you know.”

“I was joking, Crisy. It was a jab at George for something he said to me when we were waiting for you and Fred to go through the wall,” I say to calm her down. George blushes almost as red as his hair, and Fred raises an eyebrow in interest but doesn’t push the issue. I laugh at George’s face, causing him, if it was possible, to turn an even brighter shade of red.

“Well, it’s not everyday you get taken out by a girl half your size!” George tries to defend himself. Fred and Crystella just laugh.

“Yeah sorry about that by the way,” I say scratching the back of my neck nervously. “Force of habit.”

“What do you mean?” Fred questions.

Both Crisy and I get really quiet and look at one another, silently debating whether we should tell them about the foster homes and living on the streets. Finally Crisy shrugs as if to say They’ll probably find out sometime.

I let out a heavy sigh and look at the floor for a moment before looking up at them. “We both lost our parents in the wizard war when we were three. Because we didn’t have any family left in America, we were put into foster care. None of the homes we were put in were good. We both endured some pretty bad stuff, making us both pretty sensitive to meeting new people. Crisy got verbally abused pretty bad, which makes her way more sensitive emotionally than I am. Because of that, she’s better at reading people and is great at making them feel better or, in some instances that we’ve gotten ourselves into, worse. I, on the other hand, took a lot of physical abuse. I have a high pain tolerance and am really hypersensitive in the sense that I’m very aware of my surroundings and how to fight them. You’ll also find that I have the not always convenient ability to piss people off. It’s hard to explain unless you see it, but trust me, if there’s ever someone you need to make mad for whatever reason, I’d be a good person to go to for that. I tried to take most the physical beatings off of Crisy because I couldn’t take it, watching her get hurt like that. The blood and bruises… I can deal with seeing it on myself, but her... I’d rather run on burning glass for the rest of my life than see that.”

“Woah…” George says softly.

“So you’re both super close then?” Fred questions.

Crystella laughs dryly. “You don’t know the half of it. After someone takes a beating for you that happens, it also happens when you take the blame for someone so you don't have to hear them being called retarded when they are incredibly intelligent.” 

“Yeah,” I smirk slightly. “The kids at school would call us twins because of the way we would act and talk. When we started getting our powers, they gave us the nickname ‘Twitches.’”

All of us laugh at the irony, Crisy and I more so than Fred and George. They don’t know it, but the nickname is an American pop culture reference that defines us pretty well.

“When we turned ten, we decided we couldn’t take it anymore, so we left,” I continue. “We hopped state borders to throw the cops off our trail and were living on the streets by ourselves in California for about a year before Aunt M- I mean Professor Mcgonagall found us and brought us to London.”

“So you’re coming to Hogwarts because of the Professor?” George questions.

“No, well kind of,” Crystella says. “Both of our mom’s were witches who went to Hogwarts, or so that’s what we’ve been told.”

“What houses were they in?” Fred questions.

“What what were they in?” both Crystella and I ask at the same time.

The twins laugh. “House, what house were they in?” Fred repeats.

“There’s Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin,” George adds.

“Um I don’t know,” I say looking at Crisy for help, but she looked as lost as I did. “Mcgonagall never told us.”

“Oh well, allow me to explain,” Fred starts. “Ravenclaw is the brainiac house, Hufflepuff is said to hold the nicest and most loyal people, and Gryffindor is for the brave and determined. Everyone in our family so far has been in Gryffindor, so it’s likely that’s where we’ll be sorted. And then there’s Slytherin…”

“What’s wrong with Slytherin?” I ask curiously.

“It’s said that every bad witch and wizard throughout history was in that house,” George says.

“So?” Crisy says. “That doesn’t mean that every witch or wizard put in that house is bad or will become bad.”

“True, but from what our brothers and friends have told us, the students in that house tend to be stuck up and mean. They’re supposed to be cunning and sly, just all around not very good people,” Fred counters. Crisy and I just shrug our shoulders.

We all continue to talk the rest of the trip to Hogwarts. When we were about ten minutes away we take turns going in twos to the bathroom to change into our robes, since we don’t want to loose the compartment we are in. Once we arrive at the train stop everyone piles out of the train. Returning students make their way to the carriages, while first years are ushered together to go down by the water where boats await us. I grab Crisy’s hand to keep her close to me so I don’t lose her. She gives me a soft smile and my hand a reassuring squeeze. We get into a boat with the twins, and the boat begins to magically move towards the castle, and I hold Crisy’s hand a little tighter. I’m fine with being around and in water, but I hate boats thanks to one of the foster parents we had about five years ago.

When we reach the shore, I hop out as quick as I can, dragging Crisy with me. Our jaws drop in amazement as we drink in the sight of the gorgeous castle that we are now lucky enough to call our home. We walk into the castle and up a couple sets of stairs with the rest of the first years. As we round the corner to climb the last set of stairs, I look up and see Aunt Minny standing at the top, and I smile at her. She spots Crisy and I and smiles slightly at us before returning to a straight face as she addresses the whole group. She welcomes us and gives us instructions about how this evening will go. We’ll be sorted into our houses first, then the feast will begin.

I start to get a little nervous about the sorting as we walk into the Great Hall, which, by the way, is totally appropriately named. We stop at the front of the hall where a stool and what looks like an old tattered hat stands. Aunt Minny unrolls a large scroll and calls out the first person’s name. The kid walks forward and sits on the stool as Aunt Minny places the hat on their head. The hat springs to life and starts talking, making both Crisy and I jump. After a few seconds, the hat calls out “Ravenclaw!” before Aunt Minny removes the hat and the kid jumps down to join what I guess is the Ravenclaw table since they’re the ones who clap when the hat gives it’s answer. This goes on the same way for the next students. As a young girl with deep brown hair jumps down to join Hufflepuff, I’m hit with a gut sickening thought. What if I don’t get the same house as Crisy or the twins?! What the hell am I supposed to do then?!

I didn’t get very far into my depressive thoughts before I heard Fred’s name being called. As soon as it is, one of the fiery red headed twins jumps up and sits on the stool that the hat had previously been sitting on. Both twins are giggling uncontrollably and I give Crisy a questioning look, to which she replies to by shrugging her shoulders and shaking her head. Then she mouths, “That’s not Fred.” I give her a more confused look, how could she possibly know that? We’d just met them. Sure enough as soon as the tattered old hat is placed on the boy’s red head it makes a face, and in an almost offended voice says, “How unintellegent do you think I am Weasley? Honestly, Minerva, get me the other one. This is not Fred.”

Aunt Minny rolls her eyes and already looks done with the twins as she realises that she and the rest of the professors will have to deal with the two of them for the next seven years. One professor at the long table at the front of the room pinches his nose with the three fingers he still has, while a teacher with black hair in black robes looks about ready to kill the twins. Aunt Minny lifts the hat from George’s head and he laughs all the way back to his brother who is sharing in his fit of giggles while the rest of the students in the hall are laughing and applauding them. Fred runs up to the stool and sits down, still laughing as Aunt Minny places the hat on his head.   
“Well Weasley after that stunt there’s only one place for you... Obviously GRYFFINDOR!”

Fred runs down to join his older brothers. I look over to Crystella to ask her how she knew they had switched places but she’s staring intently at Fred, who smiles back at her. I laugh when she blushes. George’s name is called and he returns to the stool and as soon as the hat touches his head it says, “Ah, yes the other Weasley, it’s your turn this time! Good! GRYFFINDOR!” 

George joins his twin at the Gryffindor table but my attention is pulled away when I hear Aunt Minny says Crisy’s name. 

“Crystella Morgan,” Aunt Min- no Professor Mcgonagall says. I’ve got to get used to saying Professor Mcgonagall, I think to myself.

There are a few whispers sounded out after her name is said. I watch as Crisy smiles nervously, giving my hand one last squeeze before walking up to sit on the stool. The hat takes it’s time with Crisy. I can’t hear what’s being said, but the hat seems to be debating something. Finally after a minute or two, it cries out, “HUFFLEPUFF!” The Hufflepuff table erupts in applause and a few cheers. She gives me a bright smile and runs over to join her new house. I send her a thumbs up mouthing ‘Nice’ as she sits down. She smiles a little bigger and lets out a sigh of relief. As the applause dies down the next name is called.

“Roxanne Jones,” Mcgonagall calls. For some reason this brings out even more hushed whispers as I walk towards the stool. Mcgonagall gives me a reassuring smile as I sit down and the hat is placed on my head. 

“Hmm very interesting,” it’s deep voice says. “Another Jones. Very much like your mother you are. She too was an almost polar opposite of the rest of the Jones family. There’s a lot of courage in here, and an even slyer mind. A great amount of cleverness too. An exceptional amount of bravery here too like the last girl that was here. But where to put you. Both Gryffindor and Slytherin would fit you well. But it seems as if you’ve made a decision on where you want to be already. Are you sure? There’s no turning back you know?”

I nod my head. “Yes, I am. I want to prove people wrong about me.”

“Well there would be no better house to do that than this one then,” the hat says. “Better be SLYTHERIN!”

The Slytherin table gives me a loud round of applause as I jump down to join them. I glance back at Crisy, and she gives me a knowing look saying I see what you did there. I just smirk and roll my eyes. As I sit down at the Slytherin table after shaking a few hands and giving thanks to the people who are welcoming me to Slytherin, I spare a glance over to the Gryffindor table where the twins are sitting. They both look at me, shocked. Obviously, they weren’t expecting me to be in Slytherin. I shrug at them and send them an apologetic smile. They shake their heads at me but return my smile nonetheless, mischief clear in their eyes. I look towards the front and watch as the rest of the students are sorted. When they’re done, the hat and stool are taken away and a very old looking man stands up in the center. He introduces himself as Professor Dumbledore, the school’s headmaster. He welcomes all of us first years and says a few funny words making everyone laugh. When he’s done, he claps his hands and food erupts across all of the tables making me jump back slightly but smile brightly. Let the feast begin!


	4. Uncommon People in the Common Rooms: Crystella

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The gang seeing their common rooms and meeting some interesting characters.

As soon as the feast is over, just before we are suppose to be shown where our dormitories are, Fred runs over to me smiling. I smile back and wave at him. He waves back. As he gets closer, my heart flutters just a bit. It’s getting a bit annoying. As Roxie said earlier, since I’m more in touch with my emotions, I tend to like people a lot easier. And being only 11, this isn’t the easiest thing in the world. Especially because people usually take a lot longer to catch on than I do. But I decide I’ll be okay with being friends with Fred, for now. 

“Hey, so Hufflepuff,” he says, almost sadly rubbing the back of his neck.

“Yeah, I was hoping everyone would be in the same house, so much for that huh?” I say.

“I guess so. We’ll still hang out though, yeah? I definitely want to work on some pranks together,” he asks me hopefully.

I smile at him and shake my head yes the whole time he speaks. “Absolutely, that sounds great. Roxie too?”

“Oh! Yeah of course, and, you know, Georgie,” Fred blushes.

“Cool,” I say to him and smile. Then, I hear George call to his brother and say, “Well you better go, and so should I. Goodnight Fred.” 

“Goodnight Crystella,” he says. As he walks off, he looks back over his shoulder one last time, before he hurries to catch up with his twin.

Someone taps me on the shoulder, and I turn around to see my best friend. Roxie gives me a hug and whispers in my ear, “Congrats on getting in Hufflepuff. When we were listening to that song the hat sang earlier, I knew that’s where you would be placed.”

I pull away and smile. “Thanks, and congrats to you too. You’re gonna be the greatest witch Slytherin has ever seen. I just know it. You’d better get back to the rest of the Slytherins. I think we’ll be taken to our dormitories. Night Roxie!”

“Goodnight, see you tomorrow?” Roxie asks over her shoulder as she walks back over to where the Slytherins have gathered outside the Great Hall. 

“Of course!” I say, feeling slightly alone now. I am only with my house now. I should feel like I’m with my family according to Professor Mcgonagall, but I don't know anyone at all. I follow the house Prefect out of the Great Hall and down a corridor to the right past the kitchens until we reach a wall of barrels. 

The prefect turns around to face all the first years. She smiles at us, and I notice that she’s very beautiful. She has long blond hair and green eyes, and she seems very approachable. “Okay,” she starts, “This is the door to the Hufflepuff common room. To get it to open, all you need to do is tap the rhythm of Helga Hufflepuff on the barrel two from the bottom, in the middle of the second row. Has everyone got that? Great. Follow me on then.”

She taps the barrel, and the door opens up for us to enter. When we walk in, we see the common room is a round room decorated in sunflower yellow and black. There are windows that seem to be at eye level, but in reality are at ground level to the rest of the castle. When I look out, I see grass and flowers of the grounds and the occasional pair of passing feet. There are plants hanging in pots from the ceiling and sitting in some of the windowsills. There is a huge fireplace in the center on the furthest wall with little badgers dancing on it. Above that is a painting of Helga Hufflepuff cheering to the students holding a two handle chalice. On either side of the room there is a round door. One leads to the boys dormitories and the other to the girls dormitories. 

The room itself is so warm and inviting. I decide that I never want to leave. I walk over to a coffee table in front of the beautiful fireplace and sit on the empty couch as the rest of the first years run toward the dormitories. Most people file out, and the room gets quiet. All that makes noise is the relaxing sounds of the fire popping in front of me. I love my new home. It truly feels like home, but I miss Roxie. I hope that everything is okay with her. Suddenly, there is someone sitting down next to me. I look over to see it was another prefect, a boy this time. He has dark brown hair, blue eyes, and a kind smile. 

“First night here and you don't want to see where you’ll be staying?” he asks me. 

I smile at him. “I don't need to. I already know I’m going to love it. Besides I have other things on my mind.”

He hears the concern in my voice and gives me a worried look. “What’s wrong?”

“It’s nothing really. It’ll probably sound stupid. My best friend and I have literally never spent a night without one another. We grew up practically sisters after our parents died when we were three. We didn’t even think of a scenario where we wouldn't be in the same house. I’m just worried about her.”

“Don't worry at all. I know the feeling, and not for a second does that sound stupid. My baby sister was put in Gryffindor last year, and I had a panic attack because I had always taken care of her. What house is she is?” he asks.

“Roxie’s in Slytherin.” I say nervously. After what Fred and George had said earlier about that house, my stomach did a 180 inside me thinking that’s where she was. I know that I am being judgemental and that isn’t the kind of person I am, but it was hard not to after hearing that house’s reputation. 

The boy gave me a smile and a pat on the back. “Hey, don't you worry about it okay? Slytherins have a bad rep but really most of them are wonderful people. They just think a little different than we do. My boyfriend Abe is in Slytherin, and he is one of the kindest and funniest people I have ever met. Mind you he's quirky. He’s practically adopted the giant squid that lives in the Black Lake.”

I giggle. “Really?”

“Really. He’s even named it! I swear,” he says when I laugh harder. “I’m Aiden, by the way. Aiden Indantam.”

I stick my hand out to shake his. “Crystella Morgan. Thanks a lot Aiden; that makes me feel a lot better. I hope Roxie meets someone as cool as you are tonight. She needs someone fun like that.”

He looks reassuringly at me. “She will, and hey if you want I can ask Abe to keep an eye on her okay? But I’m sure she’ll make some great friends with or without him.”

“Thank you Aiden, really.”

“Of course,” Aiden says. “If you ever need anything, don't hesitate to ask. Or, you know, if you just need someone to hang out with or talk to, okay? You seem like a great person to have around. I don't want you to resent your house.”

I smile at him and shake my head. “How could I possibly dislike my house when someone basically says they’ll be like the big brother I never knew I needed on the first night?”

Aiden laughs and ruffles my hair, which I try to fix while playfully glaring at him. “I don't know, sis. You should go meet the girls in your room. I’m sure they’ll be great too.”

I sigh and agree reluctantly hoping that they’ll like me, that’s always my biggest worry. Saying goodnight to Aiden over my shoulder, I head through the thick round wooden door which leads me down a hall. When I find a room with my name on it along with a few other girls, I open the door and see two girls sitting on four poster beds with handmade quilts on each bed. The third and last bed in the room is by another large window that shows the grass and flowers of the Hogwarts grounds. My trunk, broomstick, and owl sit at the end of the bed and I walk over to sit on it. 

The girl on the middle bed turns to me. She has long curly red hair. While it’s not as fiery red as the twins’ hair, it can still catch attention. She has violet eyes and a straight smile. She seems a little shy, but I can work with that. “Hi, I’m Ruby Rosette. And this is Briallen Priddy.”

“Hi, I’m Crystella Morgan.”

“That’s a beautiful name,” says the other girl, Briallen. Briallen has short brown hair and is taller than me. Then again everyone is, with me being only 4 foot 11 inches tall. She is probably five feet tall. She has green eyes and pink cheeks. 

“Thanks.” I smile at her. 

Then we all talk for a while about nothing in particular, because it’s Friday night and we have a few days before classes actually start. Ruby is muggle born and has grown up in London. Briallen is from Wales and has grown up with one magical parent, so she’s been around magic her whole life. She still had to go to muggle school until this year though. Ruby is most excited to start charms class, while Briallen can't wait for transfigurations. I am most eager about flying class, since I am absolutely fascinated by quidditch. We talk about boys and our excitement about being in Hufflepuff house. Eventually, we all start getting too tired to carry on talking and one by one fall into a peaceful sleep. 

 

Roxie’s P.O.V. (Picking up right after Crystella and Roxie part ways to go to their dormitories)

I walk back to where my house is assembled outside the Great Hall, and we begin our journey to the dorms. As we’re walking down, I find myself wondering how Crisy is going to do by herself tonight. This will be the first night in, well, actually in as long as I can remember that we have been separated from one another. I start to get kinda jittery at the thought of not being able to be by my best friend’s side. Who’s gonna wake her up and help her with the nightmares she occasionally gets? Who’ll be there to protect her if a stranger was to come after her in the middle of the night? A thousand scenarios start racing my head, and I hardly notice that I’m drifting far from my group or that I’m starting to physically show how freaked out I am. One of the prefects who was bringing up the back part of the group notices, and he breaks from the group to check on me. He gently puts his hand on my shoulder, startling me. Again out of habit, my fighting instincts kick in, and I flip him over my shoulder on the ground. Thankfully, the group had already rounded the corner already, so no one saw.

“Oh my god!” I freak out. “I am SO sorry! You scared me.”

“I can see that,” he groans lightly, starting to sit up. I reach my hand out and help pull him back to his feet. “I was just coming to see if you’re alright. You seemed a bit freaked out.”

“Yeah. I’m just nervous because my bestfriend is in Hufflepuff, and this will be the first night that we’ve ever been apart from one another. I’m so sorry for flipping you over like that. My mind and reflexes have been on overdrive ever since we got here,” I apologize.

“It’s alright,” he chuckles. “Just remind me never to piss you off.”

I can’t help but laugh along with him at that. “Don’t worry I only ever fight if I or the people I care about are threatened. That was just a habitual instinct that I really need to get rid of if I’m going to be here for the next seven years.”

“Probably,” he laughs. We start walking again to catch up to the other Slytherins. “As for your friend, she’ll be okay. You said she’s in Hufflepuff, which, in my opinion, is hands down filled with the nicest and most caring people you’ll ever meet. My boyfriend is actually one of the prefects for that house. Trust me when I say that she’s in good hands.”

“Thanks,” I say, letting out a sigh of relief. “I really appreciate knowing that. I’ll probably be able to sleep now.”

“Anytime,” he smiles and stretches out his hand toward me. “I’m Abner Seaver by the way, but you can call me Abe.”

I take his outstretched hand and shake it. “Roxanne Jones, but you can call me Roxie.”

“A befitting name,” he smirks.

“Haven’t heard that one before” I ask rolling my eyes but smile as I think back to meeting Fred and George earlier today.

Abe chuckles as we catch up to our group who’ve stopped outside what appears to be a dungeons entrance. I look up at Abe, confused. He just nods and points to the prefect speaking at the front.

“So this is where the Slytherin common room and dormitories are. Yes these are the castles dungeons, but that’s exactly what makes our area the best spot to have living quarters. The dungeons are right next to the Black Lake, so when you look out the windows, you can see down into it. We also have the fantastic luxury of getting to listen to the waves hit the castle all the time, making the rooms ideal for sleep. To get into the common room, you have to know the password. At the moment it is ‘Acid Pops.’” 

As soon as she says that, the stone wall begins to move and a cut out rectangle for a door opens up revealing a tunnel that leads to the common room. We start filing in, and my jaw drops for the umtienth time today as I take in my surroundings. The common room is gorgeous. Decorated in beautiful marble and stone and accented with emerald green and silver, the room immediately floods me with a warmth I’ve never felt before. The room itself is actually quite cool in temperature, but I’m assuming that it’s because of the lake. The room is divided into two levels and has bookshelves lining the balcony. I look around at the tall ceiling, high windows that make up the walls, and jump back slightly as a giant squid swims by. I accidentally knock into Abe when I jump back, but he just laughs. 

“That’s Sunny the school’s giant squid. You’ll probably be seeing a lot of him down here. He loves to peek through the windows and watch the students work. If you want, one of these days, I’ll take you above surface and you can help me feed him. He’s surprisingly gentle for his size,” Abe states.

“I’d love to,” I reply smiling. “That sounds really awesome actually.”

“Cool. What do you think of the common room?” he asks looking down at me.

“I think it’s the most beautiful room I’ve ever seen. Honestly, green had always been a favorite color of mine, which I suppose it a good thing,” I say making us both chuckle. “It’s giving me this warm feeling, though I honestly have no clue what to call it.”

“You feel warm inside, like for the first time in a while everything seems possible. The world has a new glow to it, and you can’t wait to go explore it,” he says.  
“Exactly!” I say excitedly, happy he understands. “What would you call that?”

“Well in my experience, only there are only two conclusions as to what that is. It’s either when you realize you’re in love, which doesn’t exactly make sense at the moment, or it’s home. I know home isn’t technically an emotion, but it’s the best way to explain it.”

“Home… I’ve never really had one of those,” I say somberly.

“Well now you do. Welcome to the family!” Abe laughs and pulls me in for a hug. I can’t help but laugh at him. “Oh also I’ve decided that you’re my honorary sister now, and no you don’t get a say in this.”

I just laugh again. “So does that mean I should refer to you as my brother now?”

“Absolutely!” he smirks pulling away to look at me. “How’s it feel to have a big brother?”

“Pretty damn good,” I smile brightly.

“Fantastic,” he beams, “Why don’t you go up and see where you’ll be sleeping for the rest of the year, and you can meet your roommates.”

“Roommates?” I question, suddenly getting defensive and closing up again.

“Did you really think they would give every single student in this bloody castle their own room? It’d be chaos,” he chuckles.

“Yeah I figured, but hey a girl can hope,” I shrug. He rolls his eyes and tries to pull me into a headlock, which I easily get out off and laugh. “You really wanna try that with me after I easily flipped you over my shoulder, onto your ass not even ten minutes ago? Honestly, I may be an eleven year old girl, but I’m pretty tough.”

“Fair point,” he nods with a smile. “Go meet your roommates and try not to break any of them on the first day.”

“I make no promises,” I call over my shoulder laughing as I make my way to my dormitory. 

When I walk in, I notice four poster beds arranged neatly across the rectangular room. All are decked out in soft emerald green and silver sheets with black comforters that have the house logo on the middle of them. My trunk and owl are at the end of the bed located directly to the right from the door. Two of the girls in the room are conversing cheerily about something on the two beds going down the room from the left side of the door. One of them says something making the other shriek in excitement and me flinch from the noise. The one who shrieked has dirty blonde hair and brown eyes, and the other has black hair and silver grey eyes. Both are very pretty for their age, but I quickly decide I don’t like those two. I can tell already they’re going to be the popular airheads that Crisy and I made fun of from the muggle schools. The third girl in the room is laying on her back on her bed that is located across from me on the right side of the room. She’s throwing some kind of ball up in the air before catching it and throwing it again. Like the other two, she’s a looker, and if time is kind, she’ll be drop dead gorgeous when she gets older. She has gunmetal blue eyes and strawberry blonde hair that looks like it goes to about mid-back. I can tell from the annoyed look on her freckle-dusted face that she isn’t all too thrilled about having those two in our room either.

“Would you two shut up?!” the girl on the right-side bed drawls out, showing the other two how annoyed she is as she sits up to glare at them. “You haven’t stopped squealing since we got here. If you do it anymore, my eardrums are going to break.”

“I don’t understand how you aren’t freaking out?” the blonde snaps.

“I mean did you see how many hunks there are here?!” the silver eyed girl squeals.

“Oh god, stop making that God awful shriek,” I say clutching my left ear. “I’ve only heard it twice now, and my eardrums are pounding.”

“See!” the girl on the right-side bed says. “I’m not the only one!”

“Fine,” the blonde huffs before her and her friend get up and head out of the room.

“God, do I really have to room with them for a whole year?” says the girl who turns to look at me after the other two leave.

“Unfortunately, I think we have to,” I laugh lightly. “But at least you’ll have back up.”

“Good. I think we’ll need each other. I’m Lyra Illandur by the way,” she says standing up and extending her hand out to me.

“Roxanne Jones, but please call me Roxie,” I reply taking her hand and shaking it. “Did you catch the two dunders names at all?”

“The blonde is named Ashely and the silver eyed one is Chloe,” she answers.

“Could you get anymore cliche?” I say making us both laugh. We sit down on our beds and spend the next hour or so talking about our lives and families, what we’re excited about for the upcoming year, and just random things that come up. I find out she’s a halfblood like me. Her mother is from an old, wealthy pureblood family, and her father is the muggle brother of one of said mother’s muggleborn friends. Her mother is the wizard owner of Gringotts Bank, and her dad is a lawyer in the muggle world. Eventually all of today’s excitements catch up to us and we hit the sack. Before I fall asleep, my mind wanders to Crisy, hoping she has had as good of an evening as I have. But I remember what Fred had said about Hufflepuff being the nicest of the houses here, and I fall into a peaceful sleep with a smile on my face.

 

Fred’s POV (Leaving off after they have been shown to the Gryffindor common room).

I look around the common room. There is maroon and gold everywhere in the warm area. There’s a couch in the middle of the room, a small table on either side of it. Next to the tables there are large chairs, all arranged to face the large fireplace, which is the main focus of the room. There are stained glass windows that look over the grounds, between two doors, one leading to the boys dorms and the other to the girls. There is a love seat sitting in the center of the stained glass windows. All the other walls are covered in tapestries of famous Gryffindors.

I’m sitting in the common room in front of the fireplace with George talking about our first prank of the year, and we decide on the victim rather quickly. Filch. Charlie says he is basically a grumpy, glorified hall monitor. He also said that Filch had a few drawers in his office labeled “CONFISCATED AND DANGEROUS.” We had to get into that drawer. On the way up to the common room we had passed Filch while he was grumbling to his creepy red eyed cat about children and how he wished they hadn’t changed detention because if they hadn’t he’d find a way to give every student in Gryffindor detention. According to his insane babbling we are the worst of the four houses and the only students he can trust are the Hufflepuffs. Thinking back to that, I get a brilliant idea which included Crystella, who just so happened to be a Hufflepuff. 

“Georgie, I think I’ve got it.” I say grinning, “I am a genius!” 

“Why?”

“We should have Crystella help us! You heard Filch, he trusts the Hufflepuffs, she could helps us and it’d be like having an invisible third member of our team! She’s a Hufflepuff, Filch would be none-the-wiser!!!”

I explain to him my plan, and when I finish, I smile with pride feeling quite brilliant. George looks at me and laughs. 

“What!? You don't think that will work?”

George laughs some more, but tries to explain anyway, “Oh it’ll work, but your plan isn’t about getting in that drawer, it’s about seeing more of a certain Hufflepuff.”

I punch his arm and he laughs harder, I turn away so he doesn’t see me turn red.


	5. First Day of Class: Roxie

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everyone has their first day at Hogwarts, but of course, nothing goes as planned.

It’s September fourth, and it’s the first day of classes. I wake up bright and early, excited about starting the day. I get up, take a quick shower, and dress in my house robes. I walk over to the mirror in the room to tie my green and silver tie securely around my neck. I take one last look at myself before heading out towards the common room. The common room is packed full of excited and half-awake students. In the mess of people, I spot Abe standing by the door that leads out to the rest of the castle. He looks over at me and smiles beckoning me over to him. I smile back and make my way towards him.

“Morning sis!” he says with an excited smile as he pulls me in for an unexpected hug.

“Mornin’ bro,” I giggle and hug him back.

“Ready for your first day?” he bounces on the balls of his feet clearly excited himself.

“As ready as I’ll ever be I guess,” I scratch the back of my neck nervously.

“Come on, it’ll be great!” he says pulling me along with him out of the common room into the hallway. “But first we need to get some food in your system, so you’re not dead on your feet come lunch time.”

“Sounds good to me,” I say. My stomach growls in agreement making us both laugh. We begin walking towards the Great Hall, and about halfway there, we meet up with Crisy and Aiden. I give Crisy a hug and tell her good morning, and Abe does the same with Aiden. Instead of a hug though, he gives him a kiss making Crisy and I ‘aw’ at them and Abe stick his tongue out at us when their done. Crisy and I start laughing, and we continue on into the Great Hall. Once in, Abe and I tell Crisy and Aiden that we’ll see them later and make our way to the Slytherin table. I spot Lyra in the middle of the table head over to sit by her.

“Hey Ly,” I greet sitting across from her.

“Ello Rox,” she smiles.

“You ready for today?” I ask, starting to pile food on my plate.

“I’m a little nervous, but excited all the same,” she says truthfully. “What about you?”

“I can’t wait, especially for the Flying lessons. And yes Abe, I do know that I don’t have that today, but that doesn’t take away from the fact that I’m still excited about it,” I say turning to look at Abe who had opened his mouth to say something smart but shut it quickly and glares at me.

“It’s been what? Barely three, four days that I’ve known you, and you already have been hanging around me too much,” he huffs taking a big bite of ham, making me and Lyra laugh.

“No, it’s just having a quick mouth when people say something like that is something I do, so I’m a few steps ahead of you,” I smirk sipping some pumpkin juice.

“Yeah whatever,” he rolls his eyes and reaches over pulling me into a headlock to give me a noogie.

“AH! Stop! ABE!” I cry out between laughs. 

“Make me,” he laughs. I jab my hand at his side, surprising him and getting out of the headlock.

“Aw you ruined my hair,” I whine trying to smooth it down and give him a pouty face.

“Oh boo hoo. I’m oh so very sorry,” his voice drips with sarcasm. Lyra cracks up, and I look at her with a raised eyebrow.

“Are you absolutely sure you two aren’t long lost siblings or something?” she laughs.

“Pretty sure. Why?” Abe asks.

“Because I don’t think I’ve ever seen two non-siblings act more like the stereotypical siblings than the two of you,” she smirks. “And like Abe said you’ve only known each other for like four days.”

Abe and I look at each other and shrug. We continue eating breakfast and making small talk about school and what to expect with some of the teachers. When we finish, the plates of food disappear, and Dumbledore calls for our attention.

“Today is the first day of classes for you all,” he starts from his podium at the front of the room. “I wish you all the very best of luck, and I pray you all keep an open mind. To our returning students, be mindful of others especially our first years, and lend a helping hand when they need guidance. To our first years, be mindful of the time; you don’t want to be late on your first day. And know that you will find that help will always be given at Hogwarts to those who ask for it. I bid you all a good day and shall see you tonight.”

Everyone claps when he finishes, and we begin to rise from our seats to go to class. Abe gives me another surprise hug and tells me to have a good day and that he’ll see me at dinner. He leaves to go join his year of students, and Lyra and I follow some of our classmates out to go to our first class which just so happens to be potions with our very own head of house, Professor Snape.

Our group is joined at the dungeon's entrance by the Ravenclaw first years. We walk into the potions classroom and take our seats at the lab-like tables. Lyra sits next to me at a table in the middle-right side of the classroom closest to the door. The classroom overall gives me an eerie, be on alert for threats kind of feeling, and I don’t like it at all. Professor Snape isn’t helping very much either. I can’t quite say what it is, but there’s definitely something off about him. From his desk in the front left corner of the room, he glares around the room watching all of us like a hyena waiting to attack it’s prey. It’s making my hair stand on end. As soon as the last student takes his seat, Snape stands up from his desk, and in a very overly-dramatic way, he throws his cloak over his shoulder and moves to the front center of the room. His unblinking, beady, black eyes seem to stare us down.

“In this class, you all will learn the subtle science and exact art that is potion-making,” he begins in a quiet but stern voice. “Some of you may think this class to be of little magic due to the lack of wand-waving. However… Potion-making is one of the most useful skills any witch or wizard can have in their arsenal of skills, so I advice you all to pay careful attention or suffer the consequences… Any questions?” (A.N.- I purposely put in the extra periods to show the creepy pausing thing that Snape does. I couldn’t think of another way to show it since ya’ll can’t read my mind, yay!)

When no one said anything or raised their hands, he continued on and began his lesson for today. He seems to lighten up slightly as class continues, probably due to the fact that he’s teaching his own house right now and Ravenclaw which is full of quick minds who seem ready for most of Snape’s questions. An hour later, we’re all walking out of the classroom feeling pretty good. Lyra and two boys from our house earned us 30 house points, and a few Ravenclaw students earned their house 20 points. We start making our way towards our next class which is Defense Against the Dark Arts with Professor Romsey.

“Okay is it just me or does Snape creep you the heck out?” Lyra asks me.

“Oh my god, thank you! I was thinking that all through class!” I say relieved that she felt the same.

“Like I feel like he’ll be a good teacher in the sense that we’ll learn a lot from him, but he just doesn’t seem like a very good person,” she continues.

“I completely agree,” I say. “I think the only reason he was somewhat decent to us today was because he was teaching his own house. But still, if that’s the way he treats us, I’d hate to be in any of the other houses when he teaches.”

“Totally,” she agrees. We turn around the corner, and we see some Gryffindors walking into the DADA classroom. “I guess we have Defense Against the Dark Arts with Gryffindor today. This’ll be interesting.”

“Oh cool! I know two of the guys in Gryffindor. We met on the train on the way here. They’re really funny. You go ahead on in. I’m going to try and find them” I say excited to see Fred and George again. I haven’t seen them since sorting. I’m not gunna lie though, I’m a little scared to see them. When we talked about the houses on the train, they seemed very adamant about not liking Slytherin’s. I’m hoping, though, that since they kinda got to know me before I was sorted, they’ll be okay with me at the very least. Lyra shrugs and walks away into the classroom. I wait by the door for a bit, then I spot two fiery redheads and can’t stop the smile that forms on my face. “Fred! George!” I call out walking towards them.

They turn to see who called their names, and when they see it’s me, they glare and turn away. My heart drops a bit. I watch as they walk into the classroom, and I follow. It kinda hurts knowing that because of where I got sorted, I’ve probably lost two potentially awesome friends. Unfortunately, I’m used to this kind of thing happening, so it doesn’t take much for me to brush it off and re-steel my walls.

“You okay?” Lyra asks when I come in and sit next to her.

“I’m fine,” I sigh. “It’s nothing I haven’t dealt with before. Don’t worry about me.”

“Okay?” she says warily before turning her attention to the teacher up front.

“Good afternoon students!” Professor Romsey smiles. “My name is Professor Nola Romsey, and welcome to Defense Against the Dark Arts. In here, you will learn spells and hexes that protect you from dark creatures, spells, and charms. Now, I believe in starting as soon as possible to give you all a chance to learn as much as possible, so I want you to pair up with one other person. We’re going to be learning a simple spell today called Vermillious. This charm allows the caster to shoot red and orange sparks out of their wand. This can be used to send up a signal should you be lost or need help, or it can be used to do some damage to an opponent in a duel. For today, we are just going to practice using it as a flare. To perform this spell, you simply have to focus on a point where you want to aim the spark, spin your wrist clockwise once, and say very clearly ‘Vermillious!’ Aim-wise, you will aim for either the ceiling or the floor away from anyone else. Has everyone got a partner? Good. Now I’m going to pair you up to create groups of four.”

“Wanna be partners?” I ask Lyra.

“Well being as you’re pretty much the only other one here that I know and like, yeah,” she smirks, making me giggle.

“Aw thanks Ly. I like you too,” I remark. We both start laughing, but I stop when I here who we’re paired with.

“Jones, Illandur. You two are partnered with the Weasley’s,” Romsey says.

“Alright,” Lyra says, and we make our way towards the twins.

“Okay now the reason I have you in groups of four is so you can encourage each other. Remember this is all of your first years and first days, so if someone messes up, do NOT make fun of them. Encourage them to try again, and I don’t want to hear any complaining about the house rivalries. Got it? Good luck,” Romsey says watching us as she makes her way around the room.

“Let’s get this over with,” I mumble. “I just wanna get out of here.”

“Well that makes three of us,” Fred says.

I bite my tongue to keep from saying something mean and begin trying out the spell. Lyra gets it after a few tries. Shortly after her, I get it too. I squeal excitedly when I do, and Lyra high-fives me. I let out a sigh of relief and excitement that I’m actually able to use my wand and perform magic. I hear a groan of frustration and look over at George who has an annoyed look on his face. I watch him try and fail again, and I notice that he isn’t turning his wrist all the way around in a full circle.

“George, try spinning your wrist all the way around in a full circle when you say the spell. I think that’s why it’s not working for you. You’re not doing the full motion,” I say softly trying to be helpful.

“I don’t need help from a slimy snake,” he snaps.

“Excuse me?!” I exclaim.

“You heard him,” Fred joins in. “We don’t need your deceptive ways corrupting us.”

“Deceptive ways?” Lyra says irritably. “How the bloody hell is helping you learn a spell being deceptive?”

“She’s just trying to be nice to us so when the time comes when she needs something she has an excuse to get us to do it for her,” he shoots back.

“Or you know, I could just be a nice person who wants to help others succeed,” I seeth narrowing my eyes at them. “You guys met me on the train before I was sorted, and we seemed to get along just fine. What changed?”

“You became one of them,” George says.

“Now slither back to the hole you came out of, and leave us alone,” Fred says nastily. Okay ow, that hurt a bit.

“Seriously!?” I have to hold myself back from jumping at them. “You know I can’t believe I actually let myself believe that you two were different and that you wouldn’t judge me based on something as stupid as the house I live in. This is exactly why I have trust issues because of jack asses like you two! You don’t want me around? Fine! I’ll stay away. But know this,” I drop my voice deathly low so they understand how serious I am, “if either of you ever treat Crystella with the same rudeness you’ve given me or hurt her in anyway whatsoever, I will make you wish you had never been born.”

With my piece said, I walk over to my desk, grab my stuff, and storm out of the room despite Professor Romsey’s protests. I’m seething in anger. If it were possible, my head would be bright red and steam would be coming out of my ears like they do in the muggle cartoons. I don’t really pay attention to where I’m going, but somehow I end up outside by the Black Lake. I throw my books down and climb up one of the trees along the lake’s edge. I take a seat on one of the higher branches and let out an annoyed huff. I replay the events of what just happened and the words said, and my heart stings a bit. I’m angry at the twins for the what they said and how they acted, but I think I’m more angry at myself for being stupid enough to let some of my guard down. I let everything that’s happened to Crisy and I in this last week soften me. I made the mistake of letting myself toy with the fantasy that people aside from Crisy and Aunt Minny can be nice and accepting. The world, even the wizarding world it seems, is just full of cruel people who think if the cover isn’t what they like or think is socially acceptable then the book isn’t even worth the space it takes up. God, I’m such an IDIOT! I pull my legs into my chest and rest my head on my knees. I stare sadly out at the lake and feel a few stray tears slip down my cheeks.

 

Crystella’s P.O.V.

The bell rings letting us out of class. I walk out into the hallway laughing and discussing today’s lesson with Ruby and Briallen. I can’t believe how awesome being a witch is. We start making our way back to the common rooms to get a start on the homework we have. As we’re walking, I feel a tap on my shoulder making me jump a little and the person who tapped me laugh a little.

“Aiden! Don’t do that!” I laugh slapping his shoulder lightly. I wave my other friends on and stay behind to talk to Aiden.

“Sorry couldn’t resist,” he laughs. “How’s your day going?”

“Fantastic!” I cheer. “This place is so amazing!”

“Good I’m glad you’re having fun,” he smiles.

“There you are,” a voice behind us says. We turn and see Abe making his way over to us, but he looks troubled. “Crystella, have you seen Roxie yet today?”

“No, not since this morning before breakfast. Why?” I ask starting to get worried.

“Something happened during her Defense Against the Dark Arts class today,” he says making my heart drop. “I was waiting outside the classroom to see her, but instead of finding her, I got a very pissed and concerned Lyra. She said she got in an argument with two of the Gryffindor boys, and they said somethings that made her really angry. Lyra said she stormed out of the classroom. We looked around for her, but neither of us know her all too well yet. At least not enough to know where she would go if she’s upset. Lyra just went back to the Slytherin common room to see if she’s there, and I came to find you. Do you have any idea where she could be?”

“Roxie has always found peace in one of two places: high places that overlook big areas and by water,” I say. My mind’s racing a million miles an hour thinking of how my sister is hurting.

“Okay well there are only two places she could be then,” Aiden says. “If she went somewhere high, she went up to the Astronomy Tower. It overlooks all of Hogwarts and out to Hogsmeade. If she wanted to be by water, then she’s by the Black Lake.”

“I know where the Black Lake is since we went there this past weekend, so I’ll head there and look for her. You guys go look at the Astronomy Tower, since I have no clue how to get up there. I’ll have her go back the Slytherin common rooms when we’re done talking if I find her. If you find her then bring her to the Black Lake and I’ll wait there for you. If you don’t, then go wait by the Slytherin entrance,” I say. They nod, and we head out to find Roxie. Gryffindor boys? It can’t be Fred and George right? They wouldn’t do that to Roxie. Oh god I have to find her.

I make my way around the castle and out to the Black Lake. I walk over to the water’s edge and look around. A few meters away, I notice a bag and some books lying at the base of one of the trees. I walk over to them and recognize the bag to be Roxie’s. I look around but don’t see her anywhere.

“Roxie!” I call out.

“What?” a voice up above me cracks. I whip around trying to find the source of the voice, but don’t see anything. I look up around the branches of the tree, and sure enough I spot Roxie curled up on one of the higher branches.

“Roxie! Oh thank god I found you!” I sigh in relief. “Can you come down please so we can talk?”

“I suppose,” she sighs. She carefully makes her way down the tree and lands softly on the ground next to me. She sits down at the base of the tree and gestures for me to do the same.

“What happened?” I ask softly taking a seat next to her. She shrugs her shoulders.

“Nothing really new, I guess,” she says nonchalantly. “People are just cruel, and I was stupid for letting myself believe for a second that anyone aside from you and Aunt Minny weren’t.”

“Abe found me saying that Lyra found him after class saying some Gryffindor guys were really mean to you,” I tell her trying to get her to open up.

“We were put in groups of four to practice a new spell. Professor Romsey thought we could encourage one another or something like that. It was stupid thought pairing Gryffindors with Slytherins. They have a very obvious hate for us thanks to all of the rumors they’ve heard. They were just going off with the whole house rivalry thing but…” she trails off.

“But what?” I ask.

“Like I said. I was stupid, and I let my guard drop,” she says. I can practically hear the walls she has around her lock themselves up tight in the sound of her voice.

“What did they say to you?” I push.

“One called me a slimy snake, and the other accused me of being deceptive because I was trying to help the other out with the spell. He was doing the movement wrong, so I offered my advice on how to fix it and he snapped at me,” she says trying to keep her voice strong.

“How the heck is that deceptive!?” I ask feeling my blood start to boil.

“That’s what Lyra said,” she continues. “He said I was setting them up for one of those ‘you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours’ situations. He then proceeded to tell me to and I quote ‘slither back to the hole you came out of, and leave us alone.’ After he said that, I yelled at him and stormed out of the classroom. I’ve been up in the tree ever since,” she shrugs. I know she’s trying to brush it off like it’s no big deal, but I can see in her eyes that their words stung.

“Just who the hell do these jerks think they are!?” I shrieked. “Who were they?”

“...”

“Roxie? Who were the two guys who said that to you?” I ask sterner.

“Fred and George,” she just barely whispers, and my blood runs cold for a second before burning even hotter again.

“What?” I seeth. She takes a deep breath.

“George called me a slimy snake and Fred was the one who made the quip about deceptiveness and to go back to my hole,” she said louder this time.

“Oh that’s it they are SO going to get it now,” I say standing up. “I’m going to go find those idiots and give them a piece of my mind. I want you to go back to your common room. Abe and Lyra will be waiting for you there. Do me a favor? If you’re going to shut people out right now, fine I get it. But don’t shut those two out please? They actually do care about you and want you to be happy.”

She nods and gets up too. She picks up her stuff and slings her bag over her right shoulder. “I’ll see you at dinner?”

“Definitely,” I agree.

We walk back towards the castle. I give her a tight hug and a few more words of assurance, before I watch her walk off towards Slytherin’s house. When she turns around the corner, I take off towards Gryffindor Tower already planning out the major tongue-lashing those idiots are about to get. How dare they hurt my sister like that! I walk up and down hallways and staircases until I finally make it to the entrance. I know there’s no way for me to get in without the password, but luckily, a couple Gryffindors are headed this way right now.

“Excuse me,” I say trying to sound sweet despite the anger brewing underneath. “Can you guys do me a favor and tell Fred and George Weasley to come out into the hallway? Tell them Crystella Morgan wants to talk to them.”

“Sure,” one of them says.

I turn away and cover my ears, so they can get in. Once the portrait shuts, I turn to face it, waiting for the twins to come out. A couple minutes later, the two fiery redheads walk out of the portraits entrance.

“Crystella! What’s….” Fred starts but trails off when he sees the enraged look I’m giving them.

“Just who do you two think you are?” I seeth.

“What are you talking about?” George asks cautiously.

“Oh I think you know exactly what I’m talking about you bloody twit,” I snap. “How could you do what you did to Roxie?”

“She’s a Slytherin now,” Fred responds. “She’s gone to the dark side.”

“She’s my sister! And she by no means has gone to the dark side. She’s only been in that house for four days!” I yell. “Roxie isn’t a bad person at all. She’d never purposely hurt anyone unless it was to protect the people she cares about!”

“Well given Slytherin’s reputation-” George starts.

“Screw the reputation!” I interrupt. “That’s actually why Roxie chose Slytherin! She wants to prove to everyone that the reputation is wrong!”

“She chose to be with them?” they say at the same time.

“Yes! She told me she had a choice between Gryffindor and Slytherin and that the hat couldn’t really pick between either of the houses because she would fit in both so well! The reason the hat chose Slytherin for her was because she chose it herself! She said after hearing what Fred said about them, she couldn’t find it in her to believe that everyone in there was like that, and she wants to prove everyone wrong. She wants to show that not all Slytherins are evil and that the traits that make a person a Slytherin really aren’t much different than the traits that make me a Hufflepuff or you guys Gryffindors,” I explain. “And she’s right!”

“You don’t know that,” Fred snaps.

“Don’t you dare snap at me Fred Weasley! Yes I do, I know Roxie,” I counter. “I’ve seen it. Just because of a few bad eggs, suddenly the entire house is evil. News flash! It doesn’t work like that! You two really hurt Roxie with what you did. She did something I had never thought she’d ever be able to do when she met you two: she let her guard down. She blindly trusted after a few hours of talking to you. After everything we’ve been through, I never thought Roxie would ever open up to anyone. She had locked her heart up so tight I was afraid it’d never open to anyone ever again. Then we met you two on the train, and I saw the fun, free-spirited Roxie that I know so well. A Roxie that no one aside from me has ever seen, and I felt so much hope. I thought she had finally taken the step she needed to to open up to everyone. Now thanks to you twats, you’ve destroyed that. She’s gone and locked herself away again and stopped herself from feeling anything.”

“Why would she chose to feel nothing?” Fred asks.

“Because you can’t get hurt by anyone if you don’t have any emotional attachments to them or their words. It’s something we’ve both gotten quite good at over the years,” I say somberly.

“What were we thinking, Georgie?” Fred asks George, both looking ashamed and concerned.

“We chose to listen to what everyone else was saying about Slytherins instead of listening to ourselves,” George replies sadly.

“Wait, what are you talking about?” I ask.

“When we got sorted, we heard everyone going on about how bad Slytherin is, but we had a hard time accepting that Roxie was like that because of the fun we had together on the train,” George says.

“We tried arguing with them saying maybe not everyone is like that, but they kept insisting everyone there is mean and cruel. They told us that Roxie may have seemed nice on the surface, but she was just doing that to get us to do stuff for her later,” Fred continued.

“After a while we kinda started to believe them, that’s why we had snapped at her in class. Because of the ideas we had in our heads about Slytherins, I thought she was pretending to be nice to me, and Fred followed along with me afterwards,” George finishes.

“Well get this through your thick skulls: it doesn’t matter what a person looks like, where they’re from, or who they come from. What matters is who they are. Just because a person is rich, that doesn’t mean they’re snobs or that they’re spoiled. Just because a person is an expert on dark wizards and witches that doesn’t mean they themselves are a dark witch or wizard. Just because a person is in Slytherin, that does not mean that they are evil,” I say. I can feel my anger bubbling down, but a little bit still resides in me.

“She’s right. We promise to not judge a book by its cover ever again,” Fred says. Both of the twins look like ashamed puppies who just got scolded for tearing up something in the house. “We’re so sorry Crystella.”

“Don’t apologize to me,” I snap. “I’m not the one whose feelings you hurt. You both need to go find Roxie and apologize to her.”

“I doubt she’ll listen to us,” Fred says.

“Especially since we basically told her we didn’t want anything to do with her anymore,” George says.

“Then make her,” I say like it’s the easiest thing in the world. “She’ll probably listen to you guys, but whether or not she forgives you, I can’t say.”

“Which is understandable,” George sighs. “Come on Freddie. Let’s go find Roxie.”

 

George’s P.O.V.

We say goodbye to Crystella and make our way towards the dungeons. I feel terrible about the way that we treated Roxie, and I can tell that Fred feels the same. Crystella’s words run through my mind and cut through my heart. I can’t believe I snapped at Roxie the way I did. All she wanted to do was help me, and she was right too. I tried fixing what she had told me to fix, and it worked. We finally reach the dungeon’s entrance, and it hits us that we have no way of getting in there to talk to her.

“We’re gunna have to wait until they leave for dinner,” I tell Fred.

“Or we could wait for another Slytherin to come by and ask them to send her out like Crystella did for us,” he suggests.

“Do you honestly believe she will come out if she knows we’re looking for her?” I say giving him a look. 

“You’re right,” Fred sighs. “I guess we’ll just wait here then.”

“Come on. Let’s go wait at the dungeon entrance,” I tell him. We move to stand by the entrance, lean against the wall, and wait. About half an hour later people start filing out. We look around through the crowd and spot Roxie next to a girl about her age and an older boy from her house. “Roxie!”

She stops and looks in our direction when she hears her name. When she sees it’s us, she sighs heavily. She turns to talk to the girl and guy she walked out with. The girl looks over at us, and I see it’s the one from class earlier. I momentarily flash back to the tongue-lashing we received from her after Roxie had stormed out of the classroom earlier. She made us lose 20 points from Gryffindor, which now I realize was pretty fair. She narrows her eyes at us and leans over to Roxie to say something. Roxie shakes her head and says something else that seems to calm the girl down a bit. The guy gives her a side-hug and tells her something, before both him and the girl from class leave. She sighs as she watches them leave, before she looks at us and makes her way to us.

“What do you want?” she says in steeled tone. There’s the locked look Crystella was talking about.

“We owe you a huge apology, Roxie,” I say.

“We had absolutely no right to say what we did to you,” Fred adds.

“I agree,” she says. “But that doesn’t explain why you did what you did. I thought we were cool with each other, or at least we seemed to get along with each other pretty well on the train. I guess I was majorly wrong.”

“No you weren’t!” both Fred and I say hurriedly at the same time. She raises her eyebrow at us. 

“Listen, you weren’t at fault in this at all,” I say. “We were the idiots who let the rumors about your house affect the way we looked at you.”

“You’re right. We were cool on the train,” Fred says. “And we’re both really, really sorry about being jerks to you. You don’t deserve that.”

“We get it if you don’t want anything to do with us now,” I admit. “But we didn’t want you going on thinking that we hate you, because we don’t.”

“We made a promise to Crystella that we want to make to you too,” Fred starts.

“We promise to never judge a book by its cover ever again. If we do, you two can hang us by our underwear from the Astronomy Tower,” I smirk trying to defuse some of the tension. Roxie laughs lightly and shakes her head letting out a sigh.

“So let me get this straight,” she starts. “You two let the rumors about Slytherin house affect the way you look at me making you think that my kindness has twisted intentions, therefore causing you to lash out and break the trust that I, for the first time ever in my life, blindly gave to two people who were practically strangers to me, and now you’re here apologizing because Crystella scared you straight.”

We just nod our heads solemnly. She looks from me to Fred and back with a serious look on her face, before she cracks up laughing. I look over at Fred with a confused look on my face and see it mirrored on his. I look back at Roxie who’s trying to regain herself but failing slightly.

“I’m sorry. I know this whole thing isn’t funny,” she says between giggles. “I’m just picturing you two strung up on the Astronomy Tower and flailing your arms around and...”

She doesn’t finish what she’s saying as a new wave of laughter courses through her. However, this time we join her. We’re all on the verge of tears by the time we all calm down a few minutes later.

“I’m sorry. It’s just that’d be a sight to behold,” she laughs lightly. “As for everything else that happened, I forgive you guys.”

“R-Really!?” we stammer.

“Yeah,” she sighs with a smile. “I figure you got your punishments seeing as you had to deal with the rath of both Lyra and Crisy.”

“Yeah remind me never to piss Crystella off again,” Fred mumbles scratching the back of his neck sheepishly.

“Not too fun is it?” Roxie smirks.

“No,” Fred and I say. Roxie laughs again.

“She’s tiny, but terrifying when she wants to be...” Fred says.

“You can say that again.” I agree and Roxie laughs at us. 

“Yeah, that’s the biggest difference between Crisy and I,” she muses. “If you piss me off, I’ll come at you swinging pretty much right away; whether it be physically or in some cases in prank form. Crisy likes to wait and plan out her moves. She generally gets people back with either a massive embarrassing prank or, as you found out, through one heck of a tongue-lashing.”

“Good to know,” I laugh nervously. “So, are we okay?”

“Yeah, I suppose I’ll keep you around a little longer,” she smirks. Both Fred and I let out a breath I don’t think either of us knew we were holding. She smiles at us and steps forward to pull Fred in for a hug, which he happily returns. She then turns to do the same to me. I hug her back tightly feeling content and relieved to have her back.

“Hey! What about me? Don’t I get a hug too?” a voice behind us whines. We let go and turn to see Crystella smiling brightly at us. Roxie shakes her head at her smiling, before she walks over and pulls her into a hug too. “Yay! Everyone’s friends again!” she cheers when they let go.

We all laugh at her enthusiasm, before turning towards the Great Hall to get some food. We part ways to go to our houses tables. As I sit down with Fred on my left and our friend Lee Jordan on my right, I cast a glance over to the Slytherin table to where Roxie is talking to Lyra. She notices me looking and smiles warmly at me, before going back to her conversation. I smile back and can’t help reveling in the warmth that starts spreading through my chest at knowing I’ve got her back.


End file.
